ISAIAH 61,10 – 62,3
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
It starts with your little granddaughter calling you into the living room. She found your wedding photo album. And she asks, “Grandma who are these people?” And you smile and say, “That girl there, that’s me on my wedding day. And that boy standing next to me that’s Grandpa!” And with awe in her voice, she says, “Grandma, you were beautiful. You’re a pretty princess!” And you nod and smile and say, “Yes, honey, I was a pretty princess. And Grandpa was my handsome prince!” And then she asks, “Grandma, why don’t you wear your pretty princess dress like I wear mine all the time?” And you say, “No, my pretty princess dress is not something you can wear when you’re baking, or cleaning the house, or when Grandpa needs to go to the office. Those clothes were a once in a lifetime set of clothes for a once in a lifetime occasion, our wedding.” And as we think about that day, we realize that we were indeed beautiful, and glorious and we dressed like the rich and powerful, like royalty. We were truly a pretty princess, and her handsome prince.
This morning God tells us, “Look again at your wedding pictures! And how beautiful you looked. I will make you look 1000 times more beautiful that that! And not just for one day! But for an eternity! And not just in Heaven! But I’ll give you wedding clothes you will wear every day of your life. Every day of your life you will be DRESSED LIKE A BRIDE AND GROOM!
I
“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” For us, looking like a bride and a groom is a once in a lifetime thing. But God is going to clothe us with garments that will make our wedding photo look like rags.
And He will need to give us new clothes. Because our present clothes, the robes of our own righteousness, and beauty, well, it looks like we fell into a huge mudpuddle from head to toe. And then as we staggered out of that mudpuddle we tripped, and found ourselves rolling around in cow manure. And if that we’re bad enough, we also got caught up in some barbed wire, ripped our beautiful garments to shreds. Those garments aren’t acceptable even to our mother! She wouldn’t even let us in the house looking like that! So, clothes like that won’t be acceptable to God either.
That’s why God needs to clothe us with new garments. “Garments of salvation! A robe of Righteousness.” The righteousness Jesus won for us on the cross. The sacrifice Jesus made that allows God to forgive our sins, and save us from Satan’s grasp! Clothes that allow us to stand in God’s presence for eternity. Jesus’ sacrifice, washes us completely. All the dirt and the mud is gone! All the stench of the putrid sins we’ve committed are washed away. These garments of salvation give us eternal life with Jesus in heaven. And it’s not just a cover up! It’s not that God pretends those sins aren’t there, and loves us regardless of what we look like. No, those sins are gone. They were on the shoulders of Jesus as He suffered God’s wrath for every sin of every sinner in this world. In God’s sight, we don’t just look holy. We are holy! Because of the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness we are DRESSED LIKE A BRIDE AND A GROOM!
But Isaiah says there’s more! “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.” In the Epistle lesson Paul told us that God was busy working out our salvation, even before He created the first blade of grass. God doesn’t rest, or take a break. He is constantly working and planning and adjusting and doing things to make sure that not only do we have these garments of righteousness, but that we also shine like the dawn, and like a blazing torch for all to see. It’s not just God who will see those wedding clothes He has prepared for us. People in this world will see them as well.
II
“The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory.” That sounds really strange doesn’t it. It goes beyond our comprehension how God can see us as a beautiful bride or handsome groom. But other people will see us as a beautiful bride or a handsome groom? Really/
Imagine wearing your wedding dress or your tuxedo to work! How far would we get before it would be ruined. Some of us might not even make it to the parking lot before we ruined those clothes.
So, now God gives us these garments of salvation to wear every day of our life? Oh, when God dresses me in my beautiful garments of salvation in the morning, and I am perfect, and I am sinless, I look GOOOOD! But as I going to the garage to get in my car, I stub my toe, and suddenly I’ve got a little blemish on that perfect robe with some words I shouldn’t have said. More words I shouldn’t have said, as I drive to work and a few more stains! A few tears because of some thoughtless comments from a jerk and another blemish on that perfect Robe! It doesn’t take much before my robe of righteousness isn’t so righteous. And my Christian life isn’t so Christian. And people can see the real me. A weak, wretched sinner just like them.
And yet, God says, “your righteousness shines like the dawn. Your salvation shines like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness, and all the kings will see your glory.” God doesn't say, "You should shine like the dawn." God says, "You will shine like the dawn." That is what God is working on behind the scenes. That is what God is working tirelessly for. Not just to make you precious in God’s sight. But to allow you to show that faith and that righteousness to the world. To that waitress who was having a very bad day, and just couldn’t get your order right no matter what, and still you left her an even bigger tip, with a little smiley face on the fill with a “have a great day,” your righteousness was shining like the dawn. To that elderly neighbor to whom you brought over some of your left-over lasagna for her supper tonight, your salvation was shining like a blazing torch! To that friend who was really going through a rough patch, and you just happened to call up and say, “Hey, I was just thinking about you. How you doing? Want to get together for lunch next week?” your righteousness was shining like the dawn because she realized someone cared about her. And it wasn’t that you planned that! You just did what you thought was right, and God did the rest. They saw you DRESSED LIKE A BRIDE AND GROOM with God’s righteousness shining like the dawn!
And how does God accomplish all this? “For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” I can tell you I am the last one you want to ask about making something grow. But one thing I know. How do you make a seed grow to look like the picture in front of the packet? First thing you throw it into the ground and cover it with the filthy nasty dirt. Then you put water on top of that, to make everything muddy, and you’ve got a bunch of mud covering it. And then if that weren’t bad enough, you put fertilizer on it, and most of that is made from animal manure. So, you cover your precious seed with all this disgusting filthy stinky stuff. And then from that pile of dirt, mud and manure comes that precious plant.
Sometimes, that’s the way our God allows us to have our righteousness shine like the dawn. He covers us with dirt, and mud and stinking manure. For good reason. People see you going to church, or reading your Bible, or talking to them about church things, and maybe they are impressed, or they may think, “That’s nice!” But when you find yourself on a heap of manure, and your life really stinks, and you still rejoice in Jesus your Savior, and you still sing the hymns of praise to God, and you still cling to the teachings you try to tell them every day, now there’s something special. Now they might listen. Because you have something not just when things are going well! You have something that can be helpful when bad stuff is happening.
And the point is, you may never know what you’ve done! You may never know that God has used you to encourage a troubled soul, or maybe even bring someone back from the brink of despair. God is working overtime, behind the scenes, pushing you down paths, and working out details, so that you can do wonders, and so people can see your righteousness shining like the dawn and be touched by God’s grace.
The only thing we have is God’s promise. He has clothed you in a robe of righteousness, and not only will you shine like the dawn in God’s eyes, but you will shine like the dawn in the eyes of others, as they see your righteousness and your holiness. As for us, all we know is that God has promised that we will be DRESSED LIKE A BRIDE AND GROOM! We are beautiful and glorious, and radiant. Even though we don’t always feel like it. But we are the pretty princess and the handsome prince. Because God said so.
